Faithful

by Bay, Louise

  “Well, I’m not calling in sick, so I guess you’ve got a deal.”

  He pulled me back to the bed and kissed me as if he was never going to see me again. I pushed him away eventually and headed to the bathroom. I could hear Daniel singing in the next room as I stood under the shower. He was in a great mood. My mind was imagining what Daniel’s parents were like. Would they judge me for starting something with Daniel so soon after being engaged to Charlie? Would they think I was using Daniel as a rebound? My internal judge and jury kept finding reasons to find me guilty of not being worthy of this gorgeous man.

  I took a deep breath and tried to put those thoughts at the back of my mind. I had a busy day ahead and I had to focus. My day was going to be spent at Daniel’s offices and I was excited to be so close to him for the entire day. Daniel wandered into the bathroom as I was at the vanity unity combing my hair with my towel wrapped around my body. He was completely naked.

  “You just love being naked, don’t you?” I teased him. He came up behind me and took my comb from me and continued to remove the tangles from my wet hair.

  “I love being naked with you.” He kissed me on my shoulder and stepped into the shower. My eyes followed him watching the water run down his hard, perfect body.

  Get a grip, Leah.

  ***

  On the ride to work, Daniel explained that he would keep out of the way today so unless we bumped into each other in the corridors, we wouldn’t see each other. I agreed that that sounded like the best approach. I was having a hard enough time keeping focused at work without Daniel being physically there to distract me. Plus we couldn’t have sex in his office again, I’m sure Gail had heard something which was beyond mortifying, although as I remembered how hot the sex had been, my embarrassment was totally worth it.

  When I got back to my desk, Brendan bounded over with a huge grin on his face. “Can I come to the interviews today and take notes? I hear from Deb that the CEO is hot.”

  Well, I couldn’t deny he was right about that. Brendan was training as a Legal Executive and was always trying to find non-PA work that would be more interesting to him, so although I’m sure Deb would have told him Daniel was hot and wanted to see for himself, really he was trying to be keen without anyone realizing. It was part of why I put up with him. He was very bright and with a different background could be sitting where I was sitting rather than as my PA. But he was almost embarrassed to want more. I understood that feeling.

  I grinned at him. “I can’t take you today, but I’ll make you a deal.” Another deal, was this wise? “If you type up the disclosures Deb and I get today super-quick, you can come to one of the meetings on Monday if David agrees. I’ll also explain how the whole process works and you can have a go at some drafting.”

  “Really?”

  “Really.” I felt good that I was able to give him something like this when he had worked up the courage to ask me. If I’d said no, he’d have been crushed.

  “Thank you—I’m going to be the best PA you’ve ever had today.” I laughed. He at least had enough self-awareness to know his increased enthusiasm for his role wouldn’t last beyond today.

  I realized I’d not heard from Anna and I sought out my phone from my bag and saw two missed calls from her, one from last night and one from this morning. I’d completely neglected her. She would have found the meeting with Fran almost as stressful as I did.

  When I returned her call, she was in the middle of something, but we agreed to meet at lunchtime so she could debrief me. My meetings at the Gematria offices started at two, so I finished my prep and packed my bag so when I came back from meeting Anna I would be all ready to go. Deb and I had had a pre-meeting and I had done thousands of these interviews before, so I was feeling confident.

  Anna had already grabbed me a sandwich and found me a table when I arrived at Eat. She looked exhausted, like she’d not slept.

  “I’m so pleased you called. I thought you couldn’t bring yourself to speak to me because I’d agreed to meet her,” she blurted out as I sat down.

  “Oh my god, of course not. I’ve just been selfish, wrapped up in work and Daniel. I didn’t finish work until late and then I was so knackered I fell asleep early.” Anna looked relieved. “So, tell me. What did she have to say?”

  “You don’t have to hear this. It was stressful and I want to tell you to get it off my chest, but if it’s too much for you we can talk about something else.”

  God, she was really wound up about this. And I really wasn’t, well at least as not as much as Anna seemed to be. “Seriously Anna, tell me everything. I want to know—I wasn’t avoiding you last night, honestly.”

  She started explaining how awkward it had been trying to be polite when she first saw Fran. Particularly as the pregnancy was starting to show. Apparently Fran had started crying almost as soon as the conversation started and continued to do so on and off throughout their meeting.

  “Apparently, she ran into Charlie at a bar about six months ago. He was drunk and leaching at a girl and she went over to give him a telling off and he ended up grabbing her and kissing her, against her will. She said she fought him off and ran out of the bar. A couple of days later he turned up at her flat, drunk, and she let him in and … one thing led to another.”

  “One thing led to another?”

  “Her words, not mine. She didn’t go into details and I didn’t want her to. But she said she hated herself and kept telling him it wasn’t going to happen again but he would turn up and …”

  “One thing would lead to another?”

  “Apparently, Charlie didn’t know she was pregnant until you mentioned it to him. They hadn’t seen each other since she found out that day shopping that you two were engaged. He had told her that you two … were over … were like brother and sister … blah blah blah. You can imagine she was quite shocked that he was asking you to marry him while screwing her behind your back, so she had refused to see him until he found out she was pregnant. He was furious about the pregnancy, apparently. He was vile to her, accused of trying to trap him and ruin his life, demanded a paternity test. Of course, this is all according to Fran.”

  “It sounds believable enough. God, how could I have been with him as long as I was and fail to see what a complete idiot he was? Or … is.” I sighed. It was better and worse than I expected. Better because hearing it didn’t hurt as much as I expected, but worse because it had been going on so long, longer than I let myself imagine. I felt like a fool—a naïve, trusting fool. “So, did she have the test? Are they together now?”

  “Yes, she had the test. It’s his. It sounds like they are somewhere between being together and not being together. It sounds like she’s forgiven him for his initial reaction to the pregnancy, but I guess it’s not the best start to a relationship.”

  “Wow.” It was all I could manage.

  I wandered back to the office in a bit of a daze. Lunch had been short because of my meetings that afternoon, but I had heard enough. I needed to get a hold of myself. I got back to my desk and was greeted with another huge bunch of white roses. I smiled as I opened the card.

  I hope you managed to catch up with Anna and that you are OK. Call me if you need me.

  Dx

  Dear god he was perfect. I picked up my phone and wandered into the back staircase to call him.

  He answered on the first ring.

  “Hey, stranger.”

  “Hey, perfect guy. Thank you for my beautiful flowers.”

  “You’re welcome. How are you doing?”

  “I’m good. I did catch up with Anna, but I’m all good.”

  “Wanna talk about it?”

  “Later, maybe, but seriously I’m fine, and better because I’m talking to you. Anyway, I’m just about to head over to your office and I don’t want to be late so I’d better go. Will you pick me up at 7:30?”

  ***

  The afternoon passed in a blur. We managed three meetings back to back, and my head hurt fro
m trying to concentrate and remember all the information we had gathered. But it kept my mind off Charlie and Fran, and for that I was grateful.

  I caught sight of Daniel a couple of times. I’m not sure if he saw me, but he didn’t acknowledge me. The first time was while we were waiting for our first interview. He was in a meeting room and I saw him through the glass. There must have been half a dozen people in the meeting room and Daniel was at the head of the table flanked on one side by one of those women that make you feel frumpy just knowing they exist. She was ridiculously beautiful—selfishly so.

  I looked at her and then back at Daniel. They looked like the perfect couple. She was hanging on his every word and seemed to have perfected her pout with her perfectly plump lips every time he directed his attention toward her. I hated her. I hated that she obviously knew him, worked with him, saw him regularly. I wanted to go in there and sit on his lap for the rest of the meeting, to make sure she knew he was mine. But how could I compete with that? I couldn’t even keep Charlie happy. I forced myself away from staring at them and realized Deb was watching me, so I tried to distract her and myself by testing her on some facts about the Palmerston business.

  The second time I saw Daniel I was on the way to the restroom . He was standing at the end of a corridor with his back to me, talking to a blond supermodel. Jesus, did he only employ the best-looking people in London? At one point she grabbed his lower arm and I couldn’t watch any more, couldn’t bear it, so I scurried back to the interview, no doubt giving myself kidney damage in the process.

  Back in the office, with all our notes handed over to Brendan, I headed to the restroom to reapply my makeup. I had a lot to compete with. Daniel had a lot of other choices.

  Daniel’s car was sitting on the curb as I came out of our offices and I slid in beside him, desperate for his arms around me. He didn’t disappoint. His intoxicating smell enveloped me as he wrapped himself around me and pulled me toward him. I buried my head in his neck wanting to get closer to him.

  “I thought we’d go out to dinner. What do you think?”

  I just wanted to get home and get him naked. I wanted to feel how much he wanted me.

  “OK. I thought we could do something that involved less clothes, but OK.”

  Daniel laughed, pulling me closer. “I’m always up for that, but let’s do dinner first. You said I could do with you what I wanted from tonight.”

  Well that couldn’t be a good sign. He could do with me what he wanted but he didn’t want to have sex? Maybe things were starting to fizzle out for him. Just as my anxiety was reaching new highs, Daniel grabbed my chin with his hand and pulled me in for a long, deep, soft kiss that seemed to last all the way to the restaurant. When we finally came up for air, he seemed to have extracted my thoughts through our kiss.

  “I will never tire of seeing you naked, Leah, ever. I want you every minute of every day. But it’s more than that between us, I hope. I want to talk, share our day, woo you, romance you. I want you to feel for me what I feel for you.”

  I couldn’t help let a tear escape my eye. I turned away from Daniel so he wouldn’t see. Of course, he didn’t miss a thing.

  “You’ve had a lot going on, and it’s bound to be emotional for you. But don’t hide from me.”

  I kissed him on the cheek. He was so incredibly good to me. I was never going to be able to keep him happy.

  We went to Daniel’s favorite local Italian restaurant and I was greeted like a long-lost daughter. It was sweet how much Daniel liked the place. With all the money he had, he could dine out at Michelin-starred restaurants every night of the week, but he chose simple and unfussy dining most of the time.

  I told him all about my conversation with Anna about Charlie and Fran and he just listened patiently, grabbing my hand in his at various points as if he was trying to take away my pain by transferring it to him. I didn’t know if it was because Daniel was in my life or because I had come to terms with things or a mixture of both but it seemed like a distant pain, something from a long time ago and it didn’t sting as much I had expected it to. Then I brought up my sightings of him in his office. I tried to do it in a light, non-bunny boiler way but didn’t manage to pull it off.

  “So I saw you a couple of times today in the office.” I exhaled as I said it. What was I expecting him to say?

  “You did? I didn’t see you at all. Thank goodness, because I probably wouldn’t have been able to keep my hands off you.”

  “Yes, you seemed taken up by those supermodel women you work with …” I was smiling, pretending that I was teasing, but I meant every word.

  Daniel grabbed my hand again and looked at me intently. “Leah. If I had wanted to sleep with my coworkers, I could have started when my ex-wife left. There is no need for you to be jealous.”

  I felt really pathetic. I’d never been like this with Charlie or Matt—so needy. Although in many ways I seemed to be relatively OK or resigned to what had happened with Charlie, it occurred to me that it had affected me in ways I’d not expected. Was this it now? I’d turned into one of those girls or would things get better with time. Given time, I hoped I would return to normal, but I’d have probably driven Daniel away by then.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. You are so patient, you must think I’m completely mental.”

  “Not mental, just a bit of a headcase.” Daniel grinned at me.

  Chapter Thirteen

  By the time we got back to Daniel’s place it was getting late so we headed straight to the bedroom to get ready for bed. As I brushed my teeth staring into the mirror I realized that there was only tonight and tomorrow night and then I would be without him for days—what would I do with myself? Daniel came up behind me and snaked his arms around my waist, seeming to read my thoughts.

  “You can stay here while I’m in New York if you’d like to. I’d like you here, knowing where you are, able to properly picture you and your surroundings. I hate leaving you.” Daniel buried his head in my neck, sucking and licking.

  “You’ll be distracted with a bevy of New York supermodel beauties, I’m sure,” I said avoiding his invitation as I rinsed my mouth and turned in his arms to face him.

  “Why would I want anyone else when I have this gorgeous woman in front of me?”

  He lifted up my nightdress, pushed it over my head so I was completely naked, and pulled me to him as he bent to suck my nipple. I buried my hands in his hair and my head fell back. How would I cope without him touching me for four days? It was an addiction, he was my addiction. He moved his lips to my other nipple, grazing the first with his nails which sent intense pangs to my stomach. He brought his hands to my waist and abruptly lifted me to the vanity unit. Standing between my legs he pushed closer and I felt his erection, through his boxer briefs, nudge at my entrance.

  “This is the perfect height,” he breathed in my ear. I felt his mood change. “The perfect height for my dick to rock right into your tight pussy.” He was rubbing up and down my sex, teasing me. I reached down between our bodies but he grabbed my hand before I reached him. He pushed down his underwear with his other hand. With my free hand I reached for him again, wanting my fingers around his thickness. He pulled me back and pinned each of my hands behind me on the unit under his.

  I squirmed, unable to move from where he had placed me. I could tell he was enjoying my helplessness. But he refused to enter me and just continued to rub up and down my sex. He just stared at me as I wriggled beneath him, becoming wetter and wetter in anticipation. My orgasm crept up on me, I was so focused on when he would finally push into me that I didn’t notice the pleasure that was already building within me. Suddenly it was upon me and there was no going back and without my eyes leaving Daniel’s I shuddered into my climax.

  Daniel thrust into me, as if seeing me come finally broke his resolve and he slammed into me furiously, pushing right to the back of me. It was as if he didn’t fuck me as hard and as fast as he could, the wor
ld would collapse. It made me feel powerful when it seemed he couldn’t control himself around me. It was as if he couldn’t get enough of me. I might not understand his need but I could see it, I could feel it. I felt my orgasm build again and I was vaguely aware I was calling his name over and over asking for it harder, deeper, faster. With his final thrust he let go of my arms and I slung them around my neck as my orgasm clenched the last drops of him.

  He stayed buried within me, his face in my neck his arms wrapped tightly around my back until I pulled back slightly so I could see his beautiful blue eyes.

  “You are incredible,” I said. “You make me feel incredible.”

  He kissed me in response—a deep urgent kiss, as if he were trying to bury himself him in me.

  Pulling away, he looked at me and said seriously, “You are everything I ever wanted, Leah.”

  I bent my head and pushed the top of my head onto his chest.

  “Daniel,” I said, pleading with him to stop embarrassing me.

  “You don’t get it, do you?” Pulling away from me he lifted me off the countertop and turned me around to face the mirror. Instantly my hands reached to cover my breasts, embarrassed at facing myself so naked. He moved my hands aside gently replacing them with his own. “You just don’t see you how I see you.” He started teasing my nipples until they were swelling and hard under his touch. He snaked one hand down to my mound and his fingers found the nub of my pleasure. I let my head fall back.

  “Look in the mirror, Leah. See how you respond to my touch.” I complied, meeting his eyes in the mirror. “Do you know what that does to me? Do you know how hard you make me? Do you understand what you do for me? You can’t possibly know, or you wouldn’t believe I would look twice at those women in my office. I don’t notice them. Wherever I go, I see only you.”

  I could see he meant every word.

  “But I have to leave you for four days. Four days when David could pounce on you, Charlie could beg for you back, any of the millions of guys in this city could try and pick you up.”